To examine the role of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling in chondrocytes during endochondral ossification, the dominant negative (DN) forms of BMP receptors were introduced into immature and mature chondrocytes isolated from lower and upper portions of chick embryo sternum, respectively. We found that control sternal chondrocyte populations expressed type IA, IB, and II BMP receptors a...

We reported previously that a 1.9-kb 5'-fragment from the human COL1A1 gene drove transcription of a promoterless human COL2A1 gene in tissues of transgenic mice that normally express the COL1A1 but not the COL2A1 gene. In the present study, we have established that the aberrant transcription of the COL2A1 gene did not produce any gross or microscopic phenotype, because the transcripts were not...

Objective Adult stem cells which are derived from different tissues, with their unique abilities to self-renew and differentiate into various phenotypes have the potential for cell therapy and tissue engineering. Human adipose tissue is an appropriate source of mesenchymal stem cells with wide differentiation potential for tissue engineering research. In this study isolated stem cells from hum...

Acid-soluble collagen could be isolated from fish skin using acetic acid. In recent years, much attention has been paid to collagen from marine sources, mainly arising from the fact that there is no risk of contagious diseases. Moreover, by processing the fish, significant amounts of waste materials are produced which can be considered as a substitute for these collagen sources. Thunnus tonggol...

The mouse «1(II) collagen gene has been isolated and a 5' portion of the gene which has low homology to other collagen genes was used to study the pattern of expression during mouse embryogenesis. In situ hybridization studies show that in the mouse, like the chick, «1(TI) collagen is expressed hi chondrogenic tissues hi advance of chondrocyte differentiation. The gene is expressed early in emb...

The present study details the time course and isotype distribution of the immune response to type II collagen in collagen-induced arthritic mice and mice suppressed for collagen-induced arthritis. The serum of arthritic mice was observed to contain significantly higher (p less than 0.005) concentrations of antibodies to type II collagen than that of mice suppressed for arthritis at all times te...

Angiotensin II (Ang II) is a powerful mediator of adverse cardiac remodeling and fibrosis. However, the mechanisms of Ang II-induced myocardial fibrosis remain to be clarified. We postulated that Ang II alters transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) receptor expression, specifically that of endoglin, and thereby modulates cardiac fibroblast (CF) collagen metabolism. Experiments were conducte...

Conditions were defined for promoting cell growth, hypertrophy, and extracellular matrix mineralization of a culture system derived from embryonic chick vertebral chondrocytes. Ascorbic acid supplementation by itself led to the hypertrophic phenotype as assessed by respective 10- and 15-fold increases in alkaline phosphatase enzyme activity and type X synthesis. Maximal extracellular matrix min...

Telomeres are short in type II alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Whether dysfunctional telomeres contribute directly to development of lung fibrosis remains unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate whether telomere dysfunction in type II AECs, mediated by deletion of the telomere shelterin protein TRF1, leads to pulmonary fibro...

OBJECTIVE Type II collagen, which consists of a large helical domain and telopeptides at each end, is the most abundant protein of cartilage matrix. The aim of this study was to develop a biochemical marker reflecting the degradation of the helical region of type II collagen and to evaluate its clinical performance in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS We...